Waste sites identification

One of the most important elements in the remediation of existing waste sites is early detection and actiom As an example, the cost of cleanup at Stringfellow, California, increased from an estimated 3.4 million to 65 million because of pollutant dispersal during a decade of inaction after the first identification of the problem. The opportunities for innovative sampling strategies responsive to this need are discussed in the following section. 

The toxicological profiles are developed by ATSDR pursuant to Section 104(i) (3) and (5) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA or Superfund) for hazardous substances found at Department of Energy (DOE) waste sites. CERCLA directs ATSDR to prepare toxicological profiles for hazardous substances most commonly found at facilities on the CERCLA National Priorities List (NPL) and that pose the most significant potential threat to human health, as determined by ATSDR and EPA. ATSDR and DOE entered into a Memorandum of Understanding on November 4, 1992, which provided that ATSDR would prepare toxicological profiles for hazardous substances based upon ATSDR s or DOE s identification of need. The current ATSDR priority list of hazardous substances at DOE NPL sites was announced in the Federal Register on July 24, 1996 (61 FR 38451). 

ATSDR s specific responsibilities related to blood lead screening at lead-contaminated hazardous waste sites include (1) evaluation of site-specific environmental lead exposure information, (2) identification of populations potentially exposed to lead, (3) decision about whether or not to conduct blood lead screening, (4) evaluation of blood lead screening results, and (5) determination of whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency s (EPA) proposed site remediation plans are sufficient to protect public health. 

The determination of known organic pollutants in the environment (target analysis) and the identification of all possible organic pollutants, i.e. in hazardous waste sites (non-target analysis), are important tasks in environmental analysis. However, the chemical, photochemical and microbiological... 

In 1991, the National Academy of Sciences studied the health effects attributable to toxic waste sites and concluded, [W]e find that the health of some members of the public is in danger, but We are currently unable to answer the question of the overall impact on public health of hazardous wastes. The Academy pointed out that Millions of tons of hazardous materials are slowly migrating into groundwater in areas where they could pose problems in the future, even though current risks could be negligible. The Academy concluded, ...the committee does find sufficient evidence that hazardous wastes have produced health effects in some populations. We are concerned that populations may be at risk that have not been adequately identified, because of the inadequate program of site identification and assessment. ... 

Health outcome data and parameters are the third major source of data for health assessments. The identification, review, and evaluation of health outcome parameters are interactive processes involving ATSDR, data source generators, and the community involved. Health outcome data are community-specific and may include databases at the local, state, and national level, as well as data from private health care organizations and professional institutions and associations. Databases to be considered include medical records, morbidity and mortality data, tumor and disease registries, birth statistics, and surveillance data. Relevant health outcome data play an important role in assessing the public health implications associated with a hazardous waste site and in determining which follow-up health activities are needed. 

Unnatural Products Chemistry. The complete identification of unknown compounds that we have successfully resolved using PB/LC/MS will clearly require additional analytical information, such as provided via liquid chromatography ICP/MS (detecting nonmetals such as chlorine and sulfur), FT-IR, UV or proton and heteroatom NMR. This situation is analogous to that of a natural products chemist faced with making a complete structural assignment of an unknown compound isolated from some matrix such as seaweed instead of a leachate from a hazardous waste site. The natural products chemist would exploit the complete array of analytical instrumentation and not attempt identification based solely upon low resolution (quadrupole) mass spectrometry. 

The mammalian liver through its tremendous metabolic flexibility disposes of many toxic substances, including those released from hazardous waste sites, in very few common, polar forms. In a sense we hope to exploit this capability to convert pollutants to polar, involatile forms amenable to direct TSP LC/MS determination. The development of improved means for separation, selective detection and identification of metabolic conjugates in biological fluids has applications in the dosimetry of many toxic substances. Such techniques may be useful in screening exposures to a multitude of compounds simultaneously. 

MRLs are, by definition (Chou et al. 1998), substance-specific and do not include effects attributable to interaction (whether additive, synergistic, or antagonistic) with other chemicals or environmental substances. Their relevance to the mission of ATSDR is to assist public health officials in the identification of chemicals/elements of potential health concern at hazardous waste sites. The ATSDR MRL is not intended to be used in the regulatory or site clean-up process, but is instead intended to serve as a basis of comparison with actual measured levels of environmental exposure. Further, the role of informed biomedical judgment is crucial in the application of any MRL, or the media-specific health guidance values (HGVs) derived from them, in any given exposure scenario (Risher and De Rosa 1997). MRLs for a particular substance are based upon the most sensitive effect/endpoint in that portion of the human population considered to be most susceptible to injury from exposure to that substance. Thus, the... 

ECOS-DoD (2007). Identification and selection of toxidty values/criteria for CERCLA and hazardous waste site risk assessments in the absence of IRIS values. Emerging Contaminants Task Group Risk Assessment Provisional Values Subgroup Issue Paper. Environmental Council of States, Department of Defense Sustainability Work Group. Accessed at http //www.ecos.org/files/2733 file FINAL ECOS PV Paper 4 23 07.doc. 

XSAL Identification, analysis, and evaluation of waste sites to provide assistance on remediation (prototype) PROLOG C Mini H. Groh/Technical College Saarbrucken, FRG 18... 

Additional information on inhalation, oral, and dermal exposures would be useful for assessing the health risks to humans living near hazardous waste sites including identification of target organs. 

RCRA Information Hotline Responds to requests about hazardous waste concerning identification, generators, transporters, treatment, storage and disposal facilities, recycling sites, export, and import. N/A 703-603-9230... 

Potential application areas include laboratory screening, field screening, or continuous and in situ field monitoring. The cleanup of a hazardous waste site may provide some examples of the scope and kinds of analytical tasks required for environmental applications. Analytical tasks associated with site characterization primarily involve the identification of listed contaminants and mapping of the spatial distribution of the compounds of concern. The diagnostic analytical tasks are best suited to classical laboratory-based methods such as GC, GC-MS, and LC. Screening tasks to determine the... 

This is "Superfund." It deals with identification and remediation of abandoned hazardous waste sites. 

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